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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
Write a story about a group of friends who volunteer at a soup kitchen on the weekends.
Write a children's book about diversity.
Petals fall to the ground as someone picks apart a flower and says, "they love me, they love me not."
It's Christmas, and you somehow need to manuever your parents into buying you the gift that you want.
Write a story about a rival studio that is desperately trying to create a song to outsell Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You."
You head into the forest with your trusty lantern that's been enchanted to burn forever. You're looking for something.
"Say cheese!" You push the camera button, hear the click, and... that's when all hell broke loose.
You have a writer's block breakthrough at the worst possible time.
The pumpkin flickered while you carved it… but there was no candle in it.
She was dying. She was your mother. And you remember the day your engineers first turned her on...
Write a story about the local PETA branch starting a campaign supporting black cats on Halloween day.
A ghoul, a ghost, and a mummy walk into a bar. What happens next?
A character's best friend is leaving town forever, and they haven't told them that they love them yet.
What is the memory that you remember the most? Why?
While transferring between international flights at an airport, you befriend a strange person while passing through security.
You've just made the discovery of secret playground deep in the woods... and only you know of its existence.
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